This issue finally did what I’ve been waiting for: It picked up the pace. The writing of Brian Buccellato is hit-or-miss, but I’ve always given him the benefit of the doubt that he is simply writing boring characters. Taking Captain Cold out of the equation in the first issue really did kill the potential of this series. Completely. He’s literally the only interesting aspect of the Rogues in the New 52. So taking him out was a recipe for disaster. And taking artist Patrick Zircher off after the first issue was another huge mistake on DC’s part. Artists Scott Hepburn and Andre Coelho just aren’t doing it for me. The art looks rushed and inconsistent throughout the entire issue, as was the case with the last two parts. But there is a silver lining in all of this: The Batman rogues gallery came in to save the day. Well, not literally, but they certainly made it more interesting.

The cover was pretty cool and had me excited to read this issue, even if the last one was a bit of a disappointment. And it was actually a pretty decent issue. There was a great fight between the Arkhamites and the Rogues and you couldn’t help but wonder what the role of the Secret Society was behind all of this. But before we can get too confused or invested in this battle, Black Mask and his crew show up and threaten to just kill everyone. After all, Gotham City is in the middle of an all-out turf war. So our heroes (can we call them that yet?) make a narrow escape and realize that some of them are actually more loyal than others, but when it really comes down to it, they are a family and will do anything and everything to help each other. Which is perfectly-timed in terms of a revelation, because it looks like they’re going to have to put that news to the test next issue when they try to save a member of their squad who is currently in a hospital and being held hostage by their enemies.

Personally, I still don’t really think this miniseries needs to exist. It would have been a fine one-shot or even a way to make The Flash a nice tie-in to Forever Evil, but this issue surprised me enough to care about how the story will end. We’ve only got two more issue left. Hopefully it can reach its great point again like it did with issue one, but I’m afraid that without the Batman villains to help out sales (and the story), the next two issues might just fall flat. We’ll see. And I’m sure Gorilla Grodd will be coming into play soon enough. That’ll prove to be bloody. Who knows. Maybe they’ll just kill everyone and have Captain Cold show up at the end and go, “huh, my team really does suck without me.” Or not.

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About The Author

Jeff Hill is a moderately reformed frat boy turned writer/teacher living the dream in Lincoln, Nebraska. He does freelance work and writes fiction, none of which is about corn or the husking of corn. His work has appeared in over a dozen publications and his mom has a binder full of printed copies for any doubters. Plus, he's the Chief Creative Officer of Comic Booked. So that's pretty neat, too.